Twitch introduces Pulse, its very own gamer news feed

With the introduction of its own in-house social stream, Twitch hopes users won’t stray too far beyond its purple walls. Twitch’s newest feature is called Pulse and will collect into one big gaming-obsessed feed the real-time social happenings of everyone you follow.

Like any properly evolved social network, Pulse isn’t just for text updates. The social stream, which supports links from services including Vimeo, YouTube, Twitch, Imgur and Gfycat, will go live on Twitch’s mobile app, too.

In practice, Pulse looks a lot like a Twitchy Twitter, where users can post multimedia and text snippets in real time. In an effort to boost engagement, any Pulse post will appear to a user’s followers as well as their friends right on the front page, and broadcasters can create posts from the broadcaster dashboard or the channel feed. In an FAQ post, Twitch explains how Pulse differs from the channel feed, and notes that the two features will both continue to undergo development.

“Streamers can post and engage with all of their followers and the greater Twitch community right from the Twitch front page,” Twitch product marketer Sheila Raju wrote in a post announcing Pulse. “It’s an always-on way to share clips, stream highlights, schedules, photos, and more so followers are more informed, engaged, and connected.”

Previously, Twitch viewers might have lurked on Twitter, Facebook or Discord to see what their favorite streamers were up to in-between streams. Now, broadcasters intent on building a brand centered around Twitch can access a one-stop shop of social tools to keep viewers engaged and coming back for more. More Zelda, that is.